Table of Contents
Key Points
- The 8 05 pill is a 50-mg dosage of trazodone hydrochloride, a prescription medication used to treat depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
- It’s a white, round pill with “8 05” imprinted on one side with a score.
- Common side effects of trazodone include drowsiness, dry mouth, dizziness, headache, blurred vision, nausea or vomiting, constipation, fatigue, fainting, nervousness, confusion, changes in blood pressure, and changes in weight.
- If you find an unknown pill, it is crucial to dispose of it safely and responsibly.
Both prescription and over-the-counter medications have attributes to identify them and avoid potentially deadly medication errors. The 8 05 pill is a 50-mg dose of trazodone hydrochloride, a common prescription used to treat depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
If you want to check that you received the right prescription or found an unidentified pill and to take the right steps to dispose of it, here’s everything you need to know about 8 05 pill identification and safety precautions.
What Is the 8 05 Pill?
A white, round pill with the imprint “8 05” is a 50 mg trazodone hydrochloride dosage.[1] It’s 8.0 mm in size and has a score on the same side as the imprint. The other side is blank.
Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. supplies this particular pill, but trazodone pills may have other manufacturers and suppliers. Trazodone is not a controlled drug, but it is only available by prescription.
How Is the 8 05 Pill Used?
Trazodone is an atypical antidepressant because it doesn’t fit into the major medication classes for antidepressants. It’s a serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitor (SARI), a drug that prevents serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine reuptake. SARIs also block serotonin 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors, which can help regulate sleep.
The exact manner in which trazodone can improve mood isn’t known, but it’s believed to affect the chemical levels involved in regulating mood. Trazodone is often used to treat major depressive disorder, but it may be used off-label to treat insomnia and anxiety.
Safety Considerations and Precautions
Trazodone is generally safe when used as directed, but it can cause side effects. Typically, side effects improve as your body adjusts to the drug, but it’s important to talk to your doctor about any side effects you experience.
The common side effects of trazodone include:[2]
- Drowsiness
- Dry mouth
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Blurred vision
- Nausea or vomiting
Other common side effects may include:[3]
- Constipation
- Fatigue
- Fainting
- Nervousness
- Confusion
- Changes in blood pressure
- Changes in weight
Though uncommon, trazodone can have serious side effects like:[4]
- Abnormal heart rhythm with shortness of breath and chest pain
- Severe bleeding with unexplained bruising, black-colored stools, pink-colored urine, or unusual bleeding from the nose or gums
- Low sodium levels with nausea, fatigue, confusion, and hallucinations
- Suicidal thoughts or behaviors
Trazodone can cause serotonin syndrome, a life-threatening condition with symptoms like muscle stiffness, muscle spasms, uncoordinated movement, distress, seizures, dizziness, sweating, flushing, tremors, hallucinations, and coma.
Contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of these serious symptoms.
It’s best to take trazodone with food if it upsets your stomach, but it’s important to be consistent about taking it with or without food. How you take trazodone can affect how much of the medication is absorbed into your body.
Trazodone may cause drowsiness and dizziness. It’s important to avoid drinking alcohol, which can make these symptoms worse. Don’t drive or do anything potentially dangerous until you know how the medication affects you.
There are several potential drug interactions with trazodone, including opioid pain medications, sedatives, aspirin, anticoagulants, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about the other medications you’re taking, both prescription and over-the-counter.
Never change your dose or stop taking trazodone without speaking to your doctor. Trazodone use can lead to dependence, which brings uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms like nausea, headache, and sleep disturbances. If you want to stop taking trazodone, it’s best to taper your dose according to your doctor’s recommendation.
How to Handle Unidentified Pills: Unknown Medication Safety
According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, there is one death per 1 million people caused by medication errors.[5] Medication errors are one of the leading causes of avoidable harm in healthcare.
While these errors often occur in healthcare environments, exercising caution and preventing pill mistakes is crucial. There are many ways you can make a dangerous error, including taking the wrong medication or the wrong dosage, mixing up medications, combining medications that shouldn’t be combined, or taking a dose at the wrong time.
There are always risks when you’re handling unidentified pills. If you find a pill and you’re not sure what it is – or you want to be sure you’ve been given the right medication – you can use a pill identifier, like Drugs.com, to verify. Pills are identified using:
- Standard colors: Pills often have designated colors, which may be solid or two colors on the same pill. Identical medications may have different colors from different suppliers.
- Pill form: The pill form is the type of pill, such as a capsule or tablet.
- Shape: Pills come in a variety of shapes. Round or oblong pills are the most common, but you may see square, rectangle, hexagonal, pentagonal, or other shapes.
- Scores: Some pills have scoring or lines cut into them that make them easy to split.
- Imprint: Pills have imprints to identify them easily. They’re often a combination of letters and numbers, which may indicate the dosage, drug, or manufacturer logo.
Some pills are small, so you may need a magnifying glass to check the imprint.
The 8 05 trazodone pill is a white, round pill with “8 05” and a score imprinted on one side. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. supplies it and indicates a 50 mg dosage.
Trazodone is also named Desyrel, Desyrel Dividose, Oleptro, and Trazodone D. It may have 50, 100, 150, or 300 mg dosages in oval, four-sided, or rectangular pills.
Most trazodone pills are white, but some pills are yellow. If you find a pill you can’t identify, it’s important to exercise caution. Proper disposal of drugs is a safety concern and an environmental concern.
Here’s how to handle unknown pill discovery:
- Take Them to a Drug Take Back Facility: The DEA has registered drug take back facilities for unidentified pills. These facilities are staffed by trained professionals to ensure prescription, over-the-counter, and dietary supplements are disposed of properly. Before visiting a take back facility, make sure you remove any sensitive information like your name and address. You can find local DEA take back facilities on the DEA website.
- Flush Dangerous Drugs Down the Toilet: Some drugs are deemed so dangerous that the FDA recommends they be flushed down the toilet to avoid harming people or animals. However, this list is primarily opioids like fentanyl, methadone, morphine, and oxycodone. Trazodone is not on the flush list, so it shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet. If you flush trazodone, it could have a negative environmental impact.
- Dispose of Drugs in the Trash: If you don’t have a local take back facility and you’re not permitted to flush the drug, it’s best to dispose of it in the trash. However, you must take some safety measures to prevent people or animals from getting a hold of it. Take any drugs out of their packaging and mix them with an unpleasant substance like cat litter or coffee grounds. Don’t crush any tablets or capsules. Seal the drugs in a container or bag and remove any identifying information on the drug label.
- Return Drugs to a Pharmacy: Some pharmacies will dispose of unidentified medications as a service, but they don’t have to. Ask your local pharmacy for a drug disposal kiosk for old, expired, unused, or unidentified medications.
- Don’t Give the Drugs to Anyone: Whether a pill is identified or not, dispose of it. You should never give your medications to anyone else, as it can be dangerous to misuse prescriptions.
- Be Careful with Unknown Pills: Trazodone is widely prescribed for depression and anxiety. Fortunately, these pills have clear identifiers that help you ensure that you’re taking the right pill and dosage. If you encounter an unknown pill, it’s important to dispose of it properly to ensure no one can accidentally or intentionally ingest it.
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Frequently Asked Questions About The 8 05 Pill
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